Worcester now prohibits ICE action on city property. Is Boston next?

Local News

Following other New England communities, federal immigration agents won’t be able to prep or stage in Worcester’s municipal parks or lots.

Jeanne Kissane, left, joined a rally outside city hall in Worcester, MA on May 13, 2025. Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe

Federal immigration agents operating in Worcester will no longer be allowed to use public spaces, including parks and city parking garages, while preparing for civil arrests or other actions, city officials announced.

Effective Wednesday, Worcester City Manager Eric Batista amended his executive order regarding interaction with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to include prohibiting the use of city property “for staging and prepping of federal civil immigration enforcement actions,” the city said in a statement.

“Today, with a heightened distress throughout the nation as federal enforcement of immigrations laws is increasing in an unchecked manner, we are building upon our policy with new amendments that further protect our residents,” Batista said in a statement.

ICE agents are now barred from “assembling, mobilizing, or deploying vehicles, equipment, materials, or personnel” for federal civil immigration enforcement operations in Worcester’s open space, parking lots, and parks, and in both the exterior and interior of city buildings.

Worcester police officers are also now required to “take reasonable steps to verify that the individuals on scene are federal agents,” city officials said Wednesday. The city’s initial order, signed in May, ordered that city employees, including police, would not aid ICE for civil immigration detainers.

The amendment comes “in light of national and statewide concerns” about ICE, Batista’s office said, as backlash continues to the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens, by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January.

Worcester’s population is a quarter foreign-born, according to census date, and has experienced a number of immigration raids. Last year, a Worcester mother was detained by ICE during a chaotic scene that prompted public outcry. Two people — including the woman’s 16-year-old daughter — were arrested by Worcester police, who are not legally allowed to aid ICE. A then-Worcester City Councilor, herself an immigrant, also faced charges stemming from the incident for allegedly assaulting a police officer.

“The tactics and operations that are being used for civil immigration enforcement right now undermine our ability to work with community,” Batista said in the statement about the amendment. “The City of Worcester celebrates and welcomes all of its residents, including our vibrant immigration population, and will stand united to ensure we remain a welcoming and inclusive city for all.”

Providence, RI and Massachusetts implement similar orders

Worcester is following in the footsteps of Providence, Rhode Island, where Mayor Brett Smiley signed an executive order to prohibit agents from using city property to support operations.

“The recent chaotic actions that we’re seeing from the Trump administration are threatening immigrant communities and causing fear and uncertainty,” Smiley said at a press conference late last month, per The Boston Globe. “Here in Providence, we’re watching what’s happening in other places around the country, and it is having an effect on us.”

Shortly after, Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order prohibiting civil arrests “in non-public areas of state facilities,” as well as similarly prohibiting the use of state property for immigration enforcement staging.

The governor also filed legislation to ban warrantless civil ICE arrests inside courthouses, as well as in schools, child care programs, health care facilities, and churches and places of worship. Healey’s office called the proposal “the most comprehensive effort in the country to protect against ICE activity in sensitive locations.”

Boston City Councilors voted to condemn the killings of Good and Pretti in a meeting last week, with Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata expressing support for state legislation to limit how law enforcement can act in courthouses.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s office did not return a request for comment about whether similar protections could come to Boston.

Molly Farrar is a general assignment reporter for Boston.com, focusing on education, politics, crime, and more.

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